Silver Star #2 – Review

By: Jai Nitz (writer), Alex Ross (art direction and story), Johnny Desjardins (art), Vinicius Andrade (colors), Joseph Rybandt (editor)

The Story: Silver Star regroups and starts looking for Norma. He explains the gravity of the situation to his new psychologist, through a series of flashbacks.

The Review: On visuals, I thought Desjardins was a fine artist who did some nice work in bringing some Kirby special effects to life, as well as the corpse of the giant kraken that had attacked them. The layouts were effective and drew the eye across the page on the paneled pages and especially on the collage-like double splash of the flashbacks. Some of the facials were a bit rough, but others were evocative. This occasional unevenness did not detract from my enjoyment of the story, as other elements, like scenery and Silver Star himself were cool to look at.
Writing and story caused me more problems. Anyone who has followed my reviews for a while knows I’m a Jai Nitz fan. I thought he did something magical with the narrative voice in Kato: Origins, while also bringing a real-world resonance to the stories, in terms of racism, crime, the ghosts that we carry with us, and the ghosts that we acquire. Unfortunately, that same inspiration and subtlety didn’t get to the table in Silver Star.
Comics is a medium of stewarding brands and characters and universes, of protecting or rejecting history, and expanding the fields that future writers can till. A writer can, without consequence, create a crime book, a horror book, a fantasy book or a sci-fi book without a sense of deep history or vast community. But in superhero books, the deep history has become a convention. Arch-villains become arch because they keep coming back. The first time they are just bad guys in funny suits. The vast community has also become a convention in superhero books. Heroes fight villain #1 on Monday, villain #2 of Wednesday, and team up with another hero on Thursday, and each character brings their history and baggage to the conflict. I think the hardest thing to do in the superhero genre is create a new hero and a new world out of whole cloth. We’ve seen so many origins that it is difficult to find anything fresh. We’ve seen so many motivations that they mostly appear trite or cliché, unless you bought into them as a kid. What writers can do when put in the bind of creating a new world is to deeply personalize the hero. Engage the reader powerfully in the humanity of the hero.

Kato Origins #9 – Review

By: Jai Nitz (writer), Colton Worley (pencils and inks), Carlos Lopez (colors), Joseph Rybandt (editor)

The Story: The Hellfire Club: Kato is disguised as the Prince of Siam to penetrate the Hellfire Club in an investigation. While there, the butler is killed. Kato investigates it all in his own inimitable style, despite interruptions.

What’s Good: On the art, what really jumped out at me was Worley’s more innovative layouts. Right on page two, the dead butler’s hand intrudes on other panels. On page four, the action spills out again. And on page six, the reactions of everyone to a quick and one-sided fight are fanned out like the feathers on a peacock. Coming as it did between pages of more standard layouts, these shifts definitely hit between the eyes in a good way. Worley was equally strong on action and picking dramatic and powerful camera angles. On the draftsmanship, I obviously continue to enjoy the Kato origins art team.

Writing-wise, Nitz didn’t give us any Kato-esque metaphorical or symbolic musings this issue, but that may have been because those are more suited to times when Kato is alone and being ninja-like. Instead, Nitz treats us to a bit of cultural tourism (or voyeurism, or a sense of coming home, depending on what your thing is) through the inside of a rich swinger and BDSM club of the 1940s where somebody is up to something (no, not that way…well, ok, some people are up to….nevermind). The character sketches of the inhabitants of the Hellfire Club are done with extreme economy: a few words to describe each one, but enough words to give a strong picture. This is the mark of a writer who knows how to focus in on memorable images that define characters for the reader. The best compliment I can give Nitz on these great micro-character studies is that he makes it look easy.

Kato Origins #8 – Review

By: Jai Nitz (writer), Colton Worley (pencils and inks), Romulo Fajardo Jr. (colors)

The Story: The Hellfire Club: Kato investigates some mysterious activity in 1942 Chicago. Businessmen and criminals. Strange meetings. What are criminals and businessmen up to? Kato investigates in clandestine ways and gets some help from both Green Hornet and his new friend/former hobo James.

The Review: Jai Nitz, from word one, grips us in another one of those effective and powerful sets of metaphorical comparisons that I love. Here, Kato’s inner monologue turns over war and crime, secrecy and openness, like a pebble that has been palmed repeatedly and has smoothed in the process. The theme of secrecy and hiding things runs through the book, effectively, like a spine tying concepts together. And Kato’s voice, that of an experienced, lonely martial artist, steeped in Eastern philosophy and education, deepens the narrative, showing his trademark cynical view of men and the world through ironic humor. Nitz takes us a step further in Kato’s development and keeps the character fresh by surprising Kato in this issue, morally. That’s not easy to do without having the worldly character seem naive, but Nitz found some human tastes that fit the bill and did the job of giving Kato some room to grow as a person. That’s a very good thing for a writer to be able to do.

I loved the addition and growing role of James the Hobo, even though some of the stuff he has to do isn’t all that comfortable. Adding James to Kato’s cast is a natural and effective expansion of the mythos that pays dividends now and later (more character to explore, more potential for conflict, more ways to strike at Kato). The role reversal for Green Hornet and Kato seems to be strengthening, as I got the impression that Green Hornet really seems to be the chauffeur and overall second banana. I don’t mind, as I’m far more interested in Kato than in the Green Hornet, but it runs counter enough to my expectations to be a further positive surprise as the story progresses.

Kato Origins #6 – Review

By: Jai Nitz (writer), Colton Worley (pencils and inks), Romulo Fajardo Jr. (colorist), Joseph Rybandt (editor)

The Story: We start with a softer side to Kato in this stand-alone issue. He’s going to see friends play jazz. But, being a gritty, noir book, your can bet that it doesn’t take long for the sordidness of 1940s underworld Chicago to bring trouble Kato’s way.

What’s Good: A few issues back, I had effused over Nitz’ layering of the imagery he used, specifically how Kato, in his running monologue, compared his lack of knowledge of trains to his lack of knowledge of women and his knowledge of fighting. Nitz pulls out that beautiful narrative style again, and I was immediately caught up in Kato’s musings on music and jazz. It was so fascinating, that I didn’t realize that Nitz was reeling me into a comparison of music and martial arts until page five, but by then, I was locked into my seat. Nitz’ metaphors are brilliant and this issue is all about the dark side of martial arts, much like the dark side of music. It makes total sense now, but it had never occurred to me before that the thrill of violence and power would be a drug, comparable to music, and how easy it must be to be tempted off the path. And although it is more subdued in this issue, the pervasiveness of the racism of 1940s America is an omnipresent feature of the story, much like it is in the best X-men stories. A subtle wrinkle Nitz added to the racist setting was the racism between Asians and African-Americans, which is additional layering on a powerful theme. I loved Nitz’ smart writing (as always).

Kato Origins #4: Way of the Ninja – Review

By: Jai Nitz (writer), Colton Worley (artist), Romulo Fajardo (colorist)

The Story: Nazi and Japanese spies have shot Kato, thrown him from a moving train and kept on going towards San Francisco with what looks to be an experimental aircraft engine.

What’s Good: Once again, Nitz has knit together a dense, dynamic tapestry of culture, love, action, social commentary, international espionage and of course, ninjas. Remember my review of issue #3 when I went on about how the metaphor for the issue was trains and how knowledge and wisdom and not knowing were all caught in the neat metaphor about knowing trains? This issue’s metaphor circles around a tiger Kato once saw slap down on a bear. Everything in this issue (war, ninjas, stealth, will, complacency and patriotism) fits into this clever framing metaphor in Kato’s voice. It’s a narrative that sucked me in, and wouldn’t let me go until it spit me out at the end of the issue with the surprising character reveal. What I loved about the tiger metaphor was how the tiger was feared, reviled, respected in turn, before its basic flaws were revealed, much like Kato’s. The series of psychological reversals was a lot of fun to read and gave me a better window into Kato.

Worley’s art, especially the ninja fights, was good. Kato against thugs and spies is one thing, but against another ninja, with some weirdish weapons, was pretty cool. And Worley’s cover is worth framing.

Kato Origins #3 – Review

By: Jai Nitz (writer), Colton Worley (artist), Romulo Fajardo (colors), Joseph Rybandt (editor)

The Story: Way of the Ninja, Part Three: Kato is on the trail of the ninja assassins who killed the Korean grocer (the father of his beloved) and left with a mysterious package. They’ve left on a train, so he becomes the hunter.

What’s Good: Kato Origins #1 blew me away, but #2 had down-shifted a gear and hadn’t left me so satisfied. In this issue, Nitz has hit all those elements that made the first issue so good for me. The writing is richly layered. Kato’s monologue never shows a man thinking in linear tracks. Kato thinks in themes and parallels. Take the statement he makes on page one: “I know nothing about trains.” Where do you think Nitz takes this enigmatic opening? Well, the monologue reaches into the interests of the heart, the essence of the ninja, Kato’s knowledge of cars, and his insight into the essence of the racist experience of the Asian coolie in the building of America. Nitz does the same thing with a love letter. The current of racism continues to run through the book (like it did in the first issue) to great effect. The racism, poverty, and persecution, the hero on the underside, the guy who has less options than the white man to solve any given problem because of the color of his skin, all adds great depth to this story. While many heroes have to disguise themselves from time to time, Kato has to hide his features here, because an Asian couldn’t well get on a train in World War Two America, hero or villain. This not only brings Kato the stoic hero closer to the reader, but it depicts the persecuted hero in a more visceral way than that X-Men ever did in all their splash and color. I also love Nitz’s more realistic treatment of Kato’s “super-powers.” Kato is an awesome ninja, but against someone with a gun or four guys, you’re not going to see him solve the situation without breaking a sweat or taking a hit. As a last point on the writing, I was wondering how Nitz was going to keep this series fresh. The scope seemed pretty local so far, but boy did he crack this story wide open in this issue. All in all, hats off to Jai Nitz.

Kato Origins #2 – Review

By: Jai Nitz (writer), Colton Worley (pencils and inks), Romulo Fajardo Jr. (colorist)

The Story: Way of the Ninja, Part Two: A Korean grocer has been murdered. Kato, our favorite Japanese ninja sidekick, recognizes signs of ninja involvement that can only imply that he is a target too. The problem in tracking down people people with ninja training is that they don’t leave tracks, or if they do, they lay them right through rival gangs….

What’s Good: Nitz has a solid grip of his character, how he perceives the hostile world he’s immersed in, and the sort of deadly playfulness he needs to survive. Nitz has Kato take two philosophies of conflict (one by Doc Holliday, the other by Sun Tzu) to be the thematic frames of this book. How Kato compares each philosophy, while he is implementing one that is a mix of both, is really cool, and gives depth and resonance to this gritty, brutal world. At the same time, Nitz cleverly applies sun Tzu’s work to what it’s like to be Asian in racist America of the 1940s. This gives the readers a different lens through which to look at the persecuted and how they might deal with an ignorant, hostile world. Nitz does this all with crisp dialogue, sardonic monologue boxes and appropriate reliance on Colton Worley.

Kato Origins #1: Way Of The Ninja – Review

By: Jai Nitz (writer), Colton Worley (pencils and inks), Romulo Fajardo Jr. (colors), Joe Rybandt (editor)

The Story: Way of the Ninja, Part One: The police come to the home of the Green Hornet to ask Kato for help. A Korean grocer has been killed, and they need a steady hand doing translation. Britt (the Green Hornet) tells Kato to go, despite knowing that Kato is Japanese and can’t speak Korean. Kato finds a whole lot of racism (this is just after Pearl Harbor), a beautiful woman, a dead Korean with broken fingers, and a message that makes this whole case look a whole lot more personal that he thought.

What’s Good: This is a very sophisticated story. The action is gritty and noir. The panel layouts are brisk and dynamic, and despite the fascinating and insightful monologue by Kato, the narrative almost feels terse. The art says a lot through body language (check out the detective pulling Kato towards the corpse, or the tense altercation with McLaughlin) and facial expressions (look at Kato’s expressions as he looks at the body – there is menace in his curiosity, a bubbling anger that complements the ironic narrative). The fight sequences are awesome, with silent panels showing panicked, strobed movement before loud blows land and decide the outcomes. Worley and Fajardo do brilliant work of making us feel the setting, the emotions and the action in equal measure.